Motivations Behind Fulltime Freelancing

It’s been six weeks of fulltime freelancing for me and I’ve still got 90% of the people telling me that I’ve made the wrong move; Even my very own mother. But it has never felt this right before. Money is not rolling in in big bundles, nor jobs queueing up on my to-do list. That doesn’t mean I am not doing alright. In fact, I haven’t been this satisfied for the many years in my working career. The key to know if fulltime freelancing is the path to go for you is by determining the motivation behind it. You have to be clear of what you want and how much you want it before taking a leap into anything, in this case, fulltime freelancing.

There are good motivations and bad motivations when it comes to making the decision of fulltime freelancing. And sometimes, you might have a mixture of good and bad motivations to make the move, which is why it’s very important to know why you are making the decision and what is your decision at the end of the day, not to be distracted by temporal negative motivations. Let me share with you some of the motivations that got me into the fulltime freelancing path.

I want to pursue my own ideas.In the bank, the possibilities of pursuing your own idea in terms of creative work is very limited. It’s simply because everyone in the bank works in a structure, and that structure doesn’t allow creativity to breakthrough. A credit card campaign will always have a credit card picture in the visual. And everything has to be straight to the point, direct and nothing too funky for the financial business. As a creative person, there are only so much time I can spend working in the bank; I was really afraid that my creative juice will stop flowing the longer I am there. I want to be a creative person, I don’t want to lose this part of me. So I left my job.

I want to be recognised for my work.No matter how great or fantastic a masterpiece is, if it’s created when you are working for others, the recognition goes to them and not you. I’ve worked on many campaigns – some of which are memorable because people talk about them – yet when they relate to the owner of the project, my name is not on the list. I might have created it, but I created it under my employer’s corporation, thus it belongs to them. To claim ownership of the projects I worked on, I have to be step out and take the risk that comes with it as well. That way, I get to own the project and be recognised for my work.

I want to choose the kind of work I love to do. Don’t we all want to be happy doing the things we love to do and earning a living from it? I know I do because that’s what I have been doing since I started working. I refuse to choose a job that pays me a high salary but keep me sulking all day. It’s just not worth it. So I’ve switched to lower paying jobs just because the satisfaction was much greater. Even at work, sometimes we get jobs which we detest. Yet we have to make sure we get it done. So by working on my own, I get to decide on the work I love to do. Thus, deciding what will appear on my portfolio.

I want total control of my work.My ex-boss said this, “I can see that if you are doing something that you are in control of, you are a natural decision maker.” And I think he is right. Because things get done faster and more efficiently when I am leading a project. I don’t have to turn to a superior and ask if blue is better than green, and then waste my time trying to convince him that black is not the colour for Chinese New Year. When I’m in control, I make better decisions for the project and things get completed faster.

I want to be paid the amount that’s worth my hard work. One fixed secured salary is ours when we are working for our employers, but sometimes we lean back and tell ourselves, “The amount of work I do can actually pay me triple if I was handling it on my own.” This is one of the reason I wanted to work on my own. So that I can be paid the amount that’s worth the time and energy I invested in a job. With this comes greater satisfaction that would continue to fuel my passion for design and creative writing.

I want to spend my time efficiently. There are times when I find myself sitting in the office waiting for jobs to fall on my lap. With nothing to do but still having to sit within the office space (and pretend as if I have things to do cause everyone else is busy with their work) is one of the most stressful things for me. It’s especially hard when I have a lot of personal projects to work on at home. Sitting all day doing nothing at work, then go home and rush off my personal projects – this lifestyle drives me up the wall. Working on my own allows me to determine when to work, play, eat and have fun without the obligation of 9-to-5 working hours.

Of course, there are negative motivations as well such as the bitchy manager I never seem to get along with professionally, the office politics that envelopes me even when I want nothing to do with it, the impossible procedures of getting a dustbin for myself at work, etc. But those are temporal reasons; never to be taken into consideration when making this important decision. Always look at eternal reasons when deciding because going fulltime freelance is not a game, it’s a career path and ought to be thought through just as you would decide on your lifetime partner. So it’s wise to sort out your motivations and decide based on them.

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